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Monday, October 18, 2010

Apple's next i-pod ad?(When you're on a boat all day, you need some exercise!)

We docked Saturday night at Pickwick Landing State Park, where we got to stay for free at a run-down, weed-covered dock that's due for renovation (but not this summer). We needed a leg stretch, and we'd heard the park had a restaurant, so we set off in search. Walking up the dock, we ran into a tiny white-haired woman in a windbreaker, walking an equally minuscule white poodle. The Captain asked for directions.

"Ya'll want me to carry you there?" the woman asked.

How I got that photo of the Cap'n

Pause . . . two . . . three . . . while we surreptitiously glanced at each other. After three beats, wefigured out, simultaneously, that the woman was NOT making a self-deprecating joke about her size. If you already know the vernacular, you know of course that she was kindly offering to give us a ride.

Absolutely everyplace we've stayed, people have been similarly kind . . . but the farther south we go, it seems the warmer the welcome.

Back at Paris Landing, for example, there was a sign at the marina: "Call ranger for ride to park restaurant." To us that seemed far and above the ordinary duties of a park ranger. But apparently it's routine in Tennessee parks.

Earlier this week, after spending a night anchored out in a bend of the Tennessee River, we were ready to get off the boat and have a leg stretch. So we put in at the marina in Clifton, Tennessee. The road had a narrow shoulder and town wasn't terribly close, but after more than 24 hours on the boat it felt good to walk.

The crew turned back before the Cap'n--because we'd met several other Loopers in port, and they'd invited Dragonfly to a pot-luck dinner, and the crew needed to rifle the boat shelves and see what might work as a pot-luck contribution. Fast forward thirty minutes: cook in blue-striped apron, garlic sizzling in olive oil, pasta water on the boil, sun-dried tomatoes soaking, fresh herbs from the roof garden, ready to be chopped . . . and there's a rap on the steel side of the boat. "Honey, can I bring some company aboard?"

Docked at Clifton Marina. Those tall blue poles anchor the floating docks. Their heightgives you an idea of how high the water sometimes comes up!

Pause . . . two . . . three . . . It's not what it sounds like. The officer had spotted the Cap'n walking, knew that if you saw a stranger in town, he or she was likely to be a boater from the marina, and knew the marina was a good long ways back.

So Officer Wilson did the hospitable thing . . . and offered a ride.

Addendum (apropos of absolutely nothing): SlowBoat is always on the lookout for examples of innovative, alternative technology boats. Check out this canal boat in Amsterdam, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell!